Remember the retort to the question, "Why do you rob banks?" It was, "Because that is where the money is!" Well, while watching TRMS; I saw the wealth graphs, and heard Rachel's conversation with Chris Hayes. For me it was like experiencing a financial epiphany.
The financial paradigm as we all know it has changed completely. It has made the current business models as taught at the best business schools antiquated, and without immediate redress through changes in the laws of the G20, the current business models will become extinct along with the remnants of the middle class.
Purchasing power is no longer the domain of the middle class. It belongs to the 1%. Citizens United has given us all a reality shock for sure, but it is also the precursor of our economic future. Politicians cater and bough to the wealthy because of the money. This has happened even though the voter, substitute middle class, has one vote each. The individual vote is technically something still sought, but no longer revered by our politicians.
Economically, the middle class no longer possesses anything cherished by the wealthy or the elite institutions as the vast amount of money has already been transferred away from them. The economic reality is truly frightening!
In this new economic world; Sony, Toshiba, HP, Dell, Nokia, or any other company relying on purchases from the middle class are the new mom and pop shops, replacing the nostalgic five and dime stores of the late 1940s and 1950s. They will still earn money from the forever shrinking purchasing power of the masses, but it will not be part of the new paradigm that has been created for making enormous wealth. Wal-Mart isn't likely to build many superstores in Sri- Lanka.
Our government and all economically advanced governments keep pleading the case for their shrinking middle class. From a business perspective, banks and the wealthy no longer view the middle class as part of their wealth equation. They are, for now, a nuisance that must be dealt with superficially.
Big banks realize to make big money they have to play in the markets that control that money. For them the middle class is the waitress coming around to the gambling tables to serve the drinks.